Ireland’s Cycling History – A Wonderful Story!

Paul Rouse, the noted sports historian has written this article, on cycling in Ireland, in a recent edition of the Examiner newspaper.  Anyone who reads it will, I dare say, be very impressed and amazed at the grip that cycling had on the Irish psyche back in the early part of the 20th century.

The article also has wonderful and evocative images of cycling ‘events’ over the years.  As we arrive next year in 2017 at the 200th anniversary of the invention of the bike, articles such as this will help us to appreciate how far the simple bicycle has come … and gone … in its development, and in our culture.

Sit back and Enjoy the Ride!

Cyclist.ie has a new working group examining how to integrate rail and cycling better. We want to see far higher quality cycle parking at all Irish rail stations, easier carriage of bicycles on trains and clearer information on how this can be done. We are inspired by the policies and practices of train operators abroad who really value their cycling and rail customers! Even simple interventions like giant bicycle logos at appropriate spots on carriages can make a difference – as shown in the photo above from Denmark!

The working group includes representatives from Cyclist.ie, Kilkenny Cycling Campaign, Maynooth Cycling Campaign and Cycling Ireland. The next of our regular meetings with Irish Rail will take place on Thu 20th October (afternoon).

We are now seeking a new volunteer (or several) from the wider cycling community who can help us prepare for these meetings. We would really like to hear from you if you are a regular train user – and cyclist – and have thought carefully about how Irish Rail could better accommodate its cycling customers. The ideal volunteer will have some knowledge of how progressive systems abroad work in terms of combining bike and rail, and/or can help us carry out research on this topic. We would also love to hear from you if you have specialised transport or mechanical engineering knowledge, since some of the discussions on the potential for retrofitting existing Irish Rail rolling stock can be quite technical. Even better still if the volunteer can take time out to come to meetings with us!

Please email the National Cycling Coordinator ASAP if you can help out (and ideally by Fri 14th October). Thank you.

Following a series of cyclist fatalities and a lack of investment in cycling infrastructure, when activists called for their brothers and sisters on two wheels to turn out at a protest they couldn’t have  imagined the reaction they’d get …

Read article; see also:                                                  [btnsx id=”5197″]

• Cyclist.ie seeks a Meeting with Minister Ross (16th June)
• Protest Cycle to Minister’s Office on Monday (3 Oct)